Embrace of the Goddess Ch. 09

Farryn laughed at them.

Serra sighed. "This is what I'm talking --"

"No!" snapped Orilana. "Leave me alone with her."

"Captain?" asked Harza. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Double or triple the guard at the door. I don't care. If she escapes, cut her down."

Serra stepped up to Orilana's side. "Captain, I can --"

"No," said Orilana. "I'll do this." She turned and looked at her two sergeants. They looked at her like she was crazy. Perhaps she was. Perhaps the sleep deprivation was getting to them all.

"Go," she said. "I'll be fine."

"No, you won't," said Farryn. Her voice was grating and cruel. She clearly delighted in their fear and uncertainty.

Serra grabbed for her blade. "Captain, let me --"

"Go," said Orilana softly.

Harza and Serra gave each other one last nervous glance and towards the door of the prisons. Around them, other women that were still afflicted with charms moaned and whimpered at the sight of flesh. Most of them thrust against the bars of their prisons in erotic despair. The paladins did their best to ignore them.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" asked Farryn.

"I have questions."

"Nothing new there."

Orilana looked down at her hands. She was picking at her thumbnail, imagining how it would feel if it were a claw.

"There's no way to change you back, is there?" said Orilana softly.

"I wouldn't want it if there was."

Orilana shook her head. "That's a manifestation of your affliction."

"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Farryn laughed. "The twisted soul or the twisted flesh." The bony demon shrugged against the chains binding her to a pole in the center of her cell. "Same paradox."

"Maloth says you were always this way?"

Farryn's smile spread, showing her sharpened teeth. It kept going until it revealed her entire huge mouth. Orilana looked away. "We all are," said Farryn.

"I don't believe that."

Orilana thought of Iriel. She hadn't always been a monster. Even when Orilana saw her last. When they had... kissed. Iriel wasn't a monster then, not completely. The beastly flesh her friend was trapped in didn't match the demon haunting Orilana's dreams. Maybe she wasn't done transforming. Which means it can't all reflect who she always was.

"The piercings," said Orilana, looking back up at Farryn. "They control you?"

"They open our minds."

Orilana arched an eyebrow. "Now you're talking?"

Farryn ran her tongue over her teeth. "It's just us monsters here."

"I'm not a --"

"She's got plans for you, you know?"

Orilana's chest tightened. "Iriel? Or..."

Farryn laughed. "There is no Iriel."

"The High Priestess," clarified Orilana. Maybe Iriel was using a different name now. Maybe she was as corrupted as Farryn, but her best friend had to be under there somewhere. She had to be. "She has plans for me?"

"Oh yes. Talks about you all the time."

Orilana stepped closer. "What does she say?"

"You know she wants you, don't you?" Farryn chuckled to herself. "Fool says she loves you."

Orilana gasped. Iriel had said it before, and she said it back, but she assumed it was a trap. She ran from Iriel because she felt the walls closing in around her. It had to be a trap. Maloth was a seducer, and she had taught Iriel her ways. What better way to lower Orilana's defenses and lure her under Maloth's sway? Iriel had offered her something Orilana ached for but never named.

"She says it still?" whispered Orilana, stepping closer.

"Not to just anyone, but I've been helping her with her little projects. Sometimes she mutters it in her sleep."

"Projects? The piercings. You helped make the piercings, didn't you? You were always an exquisite artificer."

"Still am."

"What do they do?" Orilana stepped closer. She was inches from the bars of Farryn's cell. "What are they?"

"Made from Maloth's bones. Did you know that?"

Orilana nodded. "We knew it was bone, but... no." She shook her head. "We didn't know."

"They power a little spell to make someone more compliant." Farryn chuckled. "But the newer models will make someone horny and desperate and docile and eager to have all their friends get piercings too." The beast smiled wide again, revealing her whole mouth. "They'll be piercing each other in the end. Like a goddamn plague."

"And... Iriel. Is she --"

"There is no Iriel."

"The High Priestess. Is she pierced as well?"

Orilana's lips parted, and she closed her eyes. She imagined the ringed piercings of white bones with glowing purple runes adorning her best friend's breasts. She forced herself to see them on copper skin and pink nipples rather than the lavender and dark purple that Iriel undoubtedly had now. She wanted to see Iriel as she used to be, even if it was naked and pierced.

No. Orilana opened her eyes. Not naked. Not anything like that.

"Not pierced," said Farryn. "She doesn't need it."

"She isn't... she's not forced?"

Farryn laughed. "She invited it."

"Was she tricked? Seduced?"

But Farryn didn't answer. The bony demon just laughed and laughed. If she weren't chained to a pole, Orilana could imagine the demon falling to her side and holding her stomach as laughter shook her to her core.

"Tell me!" said Orilana. She stepped forward and wrapped her hands around the bars of Farryn's cell.              

Farryn lifted her cold and lifeless eyes to Orilana as she calmed down. "Not every woman is a victim here." She spoke softly, and Orilana was unnerved by the strange gentleness.

"What?"

"Sure, some are. Some are perfect angels. We pierce them, drown them in the pools, and they're reborn. But some of us have been waiting our whole lives to be free of these shackles." She shrugged against the chains holding her to the pole and laughed at her own joke.

"Are you --"

"Ask Fella and Mola." Farryn laughed again. "Or Melior as they are now. They were naughty girls before. Shameful what they did. But now they delight in it."

"But Iriel --"

"Maybe she's no different. Maybe she's been longing to feel a woman's lips over every inch of her body for a long time?" Farryn shrugged again, and her chains rattled. "Maybe it's you she's been imagining doing all that kissing."

"Iriel?"

"You ever had your pussy licked?" Farryn said it simply, as though asking if Orilana had ever been to Tinue.

"What? No. I --"

"Can you imagine having a beautiful woman between your legs? Her soft and wet tongue gliding over you? Setting each nerve in your body on fire?"

Orilana sighed and pressed against the bars. Her grip tightened to hold her up as her knees softened. Iriel in the pentagram. She hadn't imagined it, but she dreamt it. It was real as a memory. Iriel licked her, and though Orilana writhed among the blood marking the ritual, she didn't pull away.

"You hold her head in place and drive her deeper," said Farryn.

That's exactly what Orilana did in her dream.

"Her tongue slithers inside you."

Yes.

"Reaching spots you didn't know you had."

"Yes," whispered Orilana.

"Melting you in the most exquisite kind of death."

"Yes."

Around her, in the other prison cells, the charmed women were writhing against the bars of their cells and moaning. They made a symphony of their pleasure, and Orilana felt the heat of their hot breath on her neck. She turned to look at them and --

Farryn dashed out the chains she had broken long ago and grabbed Orilana's hands through the bar, holding the captain in place while the other prisoners kept moaning.

"We're not so different," said Farryn.

Orilana tried to pull away, but Farryn's sharp claws dug into her wrists. "Please," whimpered Orilana.

"I'm not the one trapped," said Farryn. Then she let go of Orilana's hands and stepped back into her cell. She licked the blood from her fingertips and laughed as Orilana backed away.

The captain turned and left the prisons. She climbed the steps and opened the door. Harza stepped up first, asking what happened, but Orilana only turned to Serra and told her to make the demon talk. Harza asked about Orilana's bleeding wrists, but the captain walked past them all. Her head was fuzzy and still burning.

I'm not the one trapped.

Orilana walked through the caves to the tiny room that was reserved for her at the back. Other paladins asked her if she was okay. Some asked her questions about their food stores or the timeline for the next attack. But Orilana ignored them all.

You ever had your pussy licked?

She walked into the room and closed the door behind her. She didn't bother to peel off her clothes or even get into her cot. She leaned against the door and slid her hands into her breeches, reaching between her legs. She was wet. Goddess, she was soaked. She should be ashamed to --

But she pushed through, sliding a finger over her clit while the others casually glided between the lips of her pussy. She closed her eyes and revisited the dream. She could feel Iriel's hair in her hands. She tried to imagine her fingers were the High Priestess's tongue. She wanted to feel Iriel deep inside of her. All the way. She didn't care about the pentagram or the thin door separating her from her troops. She didn't care. It didn't matter. She wanted Iriel. Iriel. Iriel.

"Iriel," she whispered.

A howl ripped through the caves as Serra began forcing Farryn to talk. But at the end of each shriek there was an upturn, as though the pain was a question. It may have confused the other paladins, but Orilana could hear it now. It was pleasure. It was the quick slip of a moan. Pain was heaven to Farryn. There was no way to force her to talk without power. None of them had enough to compel the demon.

But Farryn's moans echoing throughout the caves only pushed Orilana further. Her knees softened and sagged as she played with herself faster. She tried to slide more fingers inside of herself and regretted not stripping. She couldn't get the angle. She needed more. She needed it deeper. Iriel had a long tongue -- a demon's tongue. She could slide all the way inside Orilana. There was no place Iriel couldn't reach, no crevice she couldn't slip through and taste.

"Iriel," moaned Orilana as she slid further down the door. There was more chaos and rumbling in the caves behind them, but Orilana didn't care. She was so close. She needed to cum. Days and weeks. Even a lifetime of celibacy. She needed to break, to try it, to give herself permission. Maybe Farryn was right. Maybe some were always born different, born off. Maybe Iriel was that way, but maybe Orilana was too. Maybe they could be that together.

"Iriel," moaned Orilana. She was close. She was --

"Captain!" There was a banging on the door behind Orilana.

"Just one minute," said Orilana. She was breathless. They must be able to hear it in her voice -- the lust and debauchery. They must know what she was doing in here. They knew she's touching herself, that she's giving herself over to --

"Captain!" The banging was harder and incessant. "It's an emergency."

Orilana whimpered as she pulled her hand free and adjusted her breeches. She looked for something to wipe her hands on but settled for her pants. She opened the door, and Harza was standing there with seven other paladins.

"What?" snarled Orilana.

Harza jumped at the tone of her captain. "There's someone here to --"

"Iriel?" asked Orilana. She hated the softness in her voice, the obvious eagerness, but her heart leapt at the thought of --

"No," said Harza. "Rella."

"The acolyte?"

"Yes. It seems she's escaped the other side and brought another prisoner."

Orilana pushed through the crowd of paladins and stormed back through her camp. There was a crowd at the cave entrance, and the moaning from Farryn had stopped. The crowd parted for Orilana, and she walked with Harza to the entrance of the cave where several guards were talking to another woman.

Orilana recognized her immediately by her thick white veil that covered her head to toe, only revealing her captivating eyes. She was the one that had always been bothering Iriel. She was devout and almost fanatical. How did she escape?

But Orilana's questions faded as she saw the prisoner beside the acolyte. She was in chains, with an iron mask latched over her face, especially her mouth. But the ghostly white hair and amused eyes left no doubt. Orilana's old sergeant had arrived.

"Hello Prim," Orilana said.